The Bleak Surprise
by Major Mario
Summary: Ibuki has the misfortune of being picked to investigate a disturbance in the forests near her village. She gets more than she bargained for when the task goes awry. ONE-SHOT.


Morning came to the island nation of the rising sun. As the sun peeked over the horizon, the people of Japan began to wake and get started with their day. In the congested cities, businessmen and corporate workers joined their fellows out in the streets as they swarmed to work. In the outlying towns, schoolchildren yawned and prepared for the studies ahead of them. And in the deepest parts of Japan, where the villages were, honest men and women were already up and about hours before the rise of the sun. Their lines were set, their crops were ready, and their day was picking up.

Not all villages were the same. Some were comprised of fishermen, others were built of farmers or artists. One village on the southern coast in particular was ordinary in appearance with its villagers being nothing more than simple merchants and craftsmen. But this was just a facade. In reality, the village was home to one of the largest ninja clans in Japan.

The shinobi of the village were both feared and respected for their skill. Their feet were as swift as their eyes were sharp. Getting into a fight with a ninja was unwise, and even though the clan avoided violence when unnecessary, they would not hesitate if their hand was pushed. They were born as ninjas, and they would die as ninjas. Their strict training regimen offered no room for slackers. There were exceptions, however...

A throwing star embedded itself in the wooden wall near a drowsy ninja. The startled girl opened her eyes and nearly jumped a foot in her seat.

"Genin! Pay attention!"

"H-Hey! I have a name!" The girl straightened up and cocked a thumb at herself. "Ibuki! I-bu-ki!"

"To me you're still a genin," replied the instructor who threw the star. He went over to retrieve it before giving Ibuki a cold look. "And a genin you'll remain if you continue to doze off during my teachings."

The kunoichi pouted and folded her arms across her beige outfit. Her long black hair was tied in a topknot, leaving two high and long ponytails to run down her back while three arched bangs peaked out from underneath her cap. She took a lot of pride in her appearance for her to take time out to tend to her hair. At eighteen years of age, she was tired of taking orders from authority figures. She wanted to wear what she wanted, chase the boys she liked, and above all else, live like a normal, everyday teenager.

Sadly, the life she was born into did not give her much room leeway. She glared at the instructor's back as he weaved through the other students to get back at the front of the class.

"I cannot stop you from dozing off. I cannot force you to pay attention. Those are choices you make on your own." The instructor turned on his heel and eyed the green ninjas in front of him. "Yes, they're bad choices. They can lead to others, like choosing to divulge information about this village. And that, ladies and gentlemen, leads to exile, or, if you're lucky..." The instructor took out a kunai blade and impaled it into the desk in front of him. "Death. Understand?"

There were a few stammers and 'yessir's from the students looking around. Even Ibuki felt the weight of the instructor's words rain down upon her. She gulped and mumbled in acknowledgment, but it wasn't good enough.

"Do you understand?" the instructor barked, harsher.

"Yes Sir!" was the combined response.

"Good! Now, if we can continue w-"

The door to the classroom slid open to shine light inside, blinding many of the students who twisted at the sudden action. Standing in the doorway was one of the high-ranking ninjas of Ibuki's clan. He stepped in without a word, followed by two other fully-equipped ninjas and one of the elders of the clan. Everyone got up and stood at attention when they saw the elder. Although the elder held a comforting smile, Ibuki felt a strange sensation of dread come over her and averted her gaze from the other ninjas.

"Good morning, Sir," the instructor greeted. He glanced at the outfitted ninjas for a moment before asking, "Is there a change of plans to my schedule?"

"No, not at all," the elder replied. He stroked his gray beard and looked towards the students. "There is, however, a bit of an incident at the moment... It seems that the shrine to the west is being desecrated by a small band of men in strange uniforms. Normally, I would leave the task of dealing with them to more experienced ninja, but I want them driven away, not killed."

In a village filled with shinobi, word got around quick. Messengers were fleet of foot and scouts had sharp eyes. Nothing that moved in their forests managed to go undetected. Ibuki, despite her slacking off, knew that if a ninja from her clan saw something out of the ordinary and cared enough to let others know about it, it was worthy of the higher-ups' attention. She leaned forward, curious as to why the elder was telling them this, especially to a group of green genin like herself.

"Fukka-san, I would like to send one of your students to partake in this task with the others."

Ibuki furrowed her brow at that and glanced about. She saw the concerned and fearful expressions on the students before her and could read their minds. Nobody wanted to go out on this task. It was too short of notice, they weren't that experienced, and the idea of men in strange uniforms made them uneasy. They were skilled and well-trained, but they were not looking forward to actual combat just yet. The instructor was more aware of this than anyone else, but the thoughtful expression on his face made Ibuki question that prospect.

"Well... It would be a valuable experience for one of my students."

When the instructor looked in Ibuki's direction, the kunoichi shook her head. This earned her a nod, much to her dismay.

"What? No!" she cried. She could feel the eyes of her peers and the elder on her, but she didn't care. "Why me?"

"You signed up for this, Ms. Himori."

"No I didn't!"

"Yes, you did," the instructor reaffirmed. He held up a piece of paper with a few names written down on it, one of which was Ibuki's. "You volunteered to be a first-response ninja for this month."

Ibuki's jaw dropped in shock. She had wondered why that 'emergency excursion' paper had so few signatures. She figured it was just because the clan was filled with uptight hermits who didn't want to leave the village for awhile. With a slap to the forehead, she cursed under her breath.

"Baka... I should really read what people put in front of me..."

"Well, there you are, Sir," the instructor said to the elder. "Ms. Himori volunteers."

"Wonderful. Thank you for your initiative, Ms. Himori," the elder replied with a kind smile.

Ibuki hid her disgust behind a forced smile.

"D-don't mention it."

She sighed and brought up her mask to cover the lower part of her face before stepping out with the other three ninjas. She felt as if fate had kicked her in the shins and thrown her to the wolves. Missions should be left to those who knew what they were doing, not inexperienced ninjas. Most likely this was a case of 'experience was the best teacher', as not much ever happened around the village and the higher-ups loved to exploit any opportunity they could get. But no matter how disgusted, angry, or terrified that she was about this task, Ibuki would never dare to turn down an elder.

As the door to the classroom closed, the class attempted to return to their schedule.

"Well... Class! Change of plans!" The instructor dusted his hands and displayed a few bandages."Let's get a head-start on more advanced first-aid, shall we? Just in case!"

* * *

The four ninjas departed shortly after Ibuki retrieved her gear. She grumbled as she followed the rest of her clan mates. Leaping and twisting through the forest to get to a meaningless shrine didn't sit well with the kunoichi. To her, it was just a shrine. It didn't matter if it was destroyed or not because it would eventually be restored. If a group wanted to desecrate it, that was their choice. However, Ibuki wondered why someone wanted to do such a thing in a first place. Shrines were big, extravagant, and boring.

Regardless, the shrine meant something to the clan, or else they would not have sent their own to investigate. Ibuki examined the other ninja she was with. They all wore the same beige outfits as she did, but some carried a few bits of extra equipment like a dagger or smoke bombs. At a glance, everyone seemed to look the same. Ibuki managed to find a few differences and gave them nicknames. The one with blonde hair would be 'Blondie', the one with the smoke bombs would be called 'Smokey', and the ninja giving her silent glares over his shoulder would be 'Jerky'.

Already Jerky reminded Ibuki of Guy and his uptight way of the ninja. She hated how, whenever he happened by, he would stop and stare at the kunoichi with that disapproving look of his. She knew that his time in Metro City had changed him, as did a lot of missions did for other ninjas, but it was still no excuse to just... stare at people like that. Ibuki returned Jerky's glare with one of her own. If he wanted to live up to his new name, then so be it.

"How much further?" Ibuki whined. She stopped on a tree branch to air out her outfit. "We should be there by now!"

"Pipe down," Blondie hissed. He whirled around and gestured to the forest floor. "If you were paying attention, we've just reached the start of the path up to the shrine."

Ibuki figured that Blondie was the leader of this rag-tag group as nobody questioned him. In her eyes he was quite the looker, but his high-and-mighty way of asserting his leadership was a turn-off. Smokey was odd and lanky while Jerky's bushy eyebrows made him look comical. Boys need more than good looks to be attractive, Ibuki thought with a huff. She shook her head and tried to refocus on the task at hand. Now was not the time to ogle boys, especially those she was working with.

The group followed the path to the shrine at a distance. Ibuki could see that subtlety was a word unheard of by the goons, as they left deep footprints right in the middle of the dirt path. They didn't even hide their numbers by walking single file like the clan did. Through the dust and forest debris, Ibuki couldn't help but notice a footprint that looked out of place amongst the others. Whoever made it wasn't wearing boots. Perhaps it was the shrine tender coming back to drive away the goons himself, or a fellow ninja, Ibuki thought.

As they neared, the shrine came into view. It was a little old building from before the great war that rocked Japan years ago, and the fact that it was still standing was a testament to the faith of the people. Wooden supports kept the building up while an arched roof sheltered it from the elements. Despite its hardy and quaint appearance, it was not invulnerable to vandalism. The donation chest at the front of the shrine was knocked on its side with its top hanging open. Multiple breaks in the floor were seen, one of which was wider than the others.

Three uniformed men were huddled around the wide break in the wooden floor. Safe in cover, Ibuki strained her eyes to focus in on something glimmering on the lapel of one of the men. It looked to be a metal insignia of a skull. One of the men reached into the broken part of the flooring and lifted up a black briefcase. Why it was there or what was inside it, Ibuki did not care. She only wanted the men driven off so she could go home, take off her sweaty outfit and switch it for something more comfortable.

Blondie made a few hand signals to the rest of the group and made it clear that he wanted to surround the men on all four sides. He and Jerky would take the sides while Smokey would attack from the front with one of his smoke bombs. Ibuki glanced between the three and groaned when she realized they wanted her to make the trip around the shrine and attack from behind. This, to Ibuki, meant that they wanted her out of the way where she could not put them in danger. She huffed and made her way through the treeline to get at the back of the shrine, thankful that the men were too preoccupied with the briefcase to notice the rustling leaves in the distance.

Ibuki wondered what the signal was going to be, but she didn't have to do so for long. A smoke bomb landed in the middle of group of men and exploded before they could react. In the blink of an eye, gray smoke swallowed the shrine and obscured the vision of those caught inside. Ibuki dashed forward to get into the cloud, her comrades already doing the same. Her training kicked in and told her to hesitate. She needed to gauge where the men would stumble off to.

Although they were mere silhouettes in the smokey cloud, the actions of the men were clear and conspicuous. One of the men fumbled for a pistol on his hip only to have his legs knocked out from under him by one of the ninjas. Blondie, most likely, or was it Jerky? The second man shouted and coughed, and soon he was silenced by a blow to the stomach and an overhead throw. The cloud shrouded the ninja's activities, but it could not dampen the awful amount of shouting and thumping. The oddly-colored sparks of connecting knives lit up the cloud every now and then before they ceased.

Two down, one to go.

Ibuki leaped into the cloud and came down hard upon the last foe, the man with the briefcase. She felt his body shift under her extended foot, stumbling the man and sending pain through his shoulder. More of her training kicked in. She advanced on the disoriented man and poked him with a front kick before transitioning into a knee to the stomach. With his strength beaten out of him, the man was easy pickings for a fierce throw onto the floor.

The kunoichi didn't even need to follow up with a stomp or knee strike. The man was out cold, and his briefcase was free from his grasp. Ibuki felt the tremors of the other men's bodies hitting the floor, even if she could not see them as clearly as she wanted to. She kept her hands up at the ready. For all that they knew, there could be another man around, or worse, another group of them. She heard a grunt of pain after a moment of silence and strained her eyes against the gray cloud.

"Uh, guys? We clear?" She waited for an answer, but no-one replied to her. She took a few steps forward towards the entrance of the shrine. "I got the guy with the briefcase... Guys?"

It took some time for the cloud to dissipate enough for the kunoichi to see farther. When she could, she gasped. The three uniformed men were all knocked unconscious, but so were the boys of Ibuki's group. Blondie and Jerky were flung together in a crumpled heap while Smokey's bandaged feet stuck up from one of the many holes in the flooring. The men could not do this. They were caught off-guard, and even if they weren't, they weren't a match for a genin ninja.

Whoever had done this had waited for the right moment to strike. Ibuki's breath hitched when she realized that. She felt exposed standing out in the open, but worse than that, she felt vulnerable. The three boys on their own were more than a match for her, given that she didn't put as much effort into her training. The only way she succeeded as a ninja was because she had a knack for surprising others. Her one strength was now nonexistent when it turned out that she was the one surprised.

"What do I do? What do I do?" Ibuki muttered to herself. She turned in every direction, searching for the one responsible. "Show yourself! D-don't make me use my kunai!"

A bead of sweat trickled down the back of her neck. As much as she hated to admit it, she was frightened of the current situation. The sound of something metal dropping behind her made her turn on her heel. The sleek, jagged metal attached to a leather grip made it clear that it was a dagger from one of the ninjas. Ibuki's face fell when she saw that the dagger was bent in half. Her face fell even more when she heard someone land behind her with an eerie giggle.

She turned to face the new foe when the briefcase, previously forgotten by the ninja, came sliding towards her at a face pace. It collided with her foot and stubbed her uncovered toes. Ibuki could not help leaping up in pain. She held her toes and balanced on her other foot on reflex, but she soon realized the mistake she made. The assailant burst through the cloud of smoke and snapped a leg forward to knock the kunoichi off balance and to the ground.

Sprawled out on her back, Ibuki managed to catch a glimpse of her group's attacker. It was a black-haired woman of average height and slim build. What defined the woman was her hair and her outlandish outfit. Her hair was styled into two intimidating-looking horns running away from each other, both of which were stabilized with two purple rings. As for her outfit, a black and purple breastplate supported by black straps and a pair of cut-through, baggy white trousers, she looked like something out of an urban myth twisted with horror and malice. Ibuki blanched when she saw the spiked bracelets the woman wore and scrambled to her feet.

"What the?! Who are y-"

The strange woman didn't even let her finish her sentence. She twisted forward and struck her leg into the kunoichi's side. Giggling all the while, the woman brought her leg back and struck forward again, this time higher. Ibuki stumbled back and lost her balance. She cried out in pain and flinched, no longer focusing on her training. Her fight-or-flight response was kicking in, but it was much too late. She had been caught off-guard and was already too injured to fight back, and running wouldn't save her.

A painful knee to the side corrected her posture and set her up for another strike from her assailant. Time slowed as she watched the woman leap up and twist a leg around in a course for her head. Her eyes widened and rolled up when it made contact with the side of her head. She collapsed to the floor and felt blood underneath her mask. The smoke became foggier as her vision became addled. She was still conscious, but she feared for her life.

Ibuki groped about on her thigh for her kunai. She could feel the assassin approaching her and felt desperate. She needed to defend herself with something, even if it meant she had to spill blood to do it. Tears born from pain and fear pricked her eyes. A dark chuckle reached her ears after she managed to grip her kunai. The woman kicked her in the side and forced her onto her back, forcing her blade out of her hand.

She looked up to see the woman looming over her. A sadistic grin was etched on her face, the face of death itself. She raised her leg up high and over the kunoichi's head. Ibuki sobbed and raised a hand to defend herself, but it was all in vain. This woman would be the death of her. She closed her eyes and waited for the blow only to realize it wouldn't come.

The assassin looked down at her with an unreadable expression. Her violet eyes focused on the tears for a moment before they narrowed in disgust. She lowered her foot and turned her body away from the ninja with a grunt.

"Didn't even fight back. Christ... You're pathetic." Ibuki heard the woman back away and opened her eyes again. "Grow a backbone, kid. Give me something that's worth breaking..."

Weary and beaten, Ibuki watched as the strange, terrible woman walked away with the briefcase in her hand. She tried to push herself back onto her feet, but her body would not comply. Before she slipped into unconsciousness, she saw what looked to be a black spider design on the back of the woman's back.


End file.
